Louise Bourgeois, Anatomy (1998), all images courtesy Galerie Lelong
On view at Galerie Lelong is an exhibition featuring graphic works, sketches and drawings made early the career of the late French-American artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), whose work often incorporated autobiographical elements.
Claude Monet’s L’Embarcadère will hit the auction block next week during Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist and Modern works next week in London. The “museum-quality” work featuring the landscapes of Zaandam in the Netherlands, is estimated to sell for between £7,500,000 and £10,000,000. “Monet captures the Dutchness, not merely externally…but also the delicate enveloping light and atmosphere, subtly different from the Ile de France,” writes art historian Ronald Pickvance. “The superb manner in which he registers the immense and often changing Dutch skies is sufficient proof of this.” (more…)
A rare, vertical Cézanne landscape from the Cortauld collection is set to hit the auction block early next year at Christie’s in London, carrying a sale estimate of up to $12 million. “It’s quite rare to see Cézanne at auction and incredibly rare to have these major motif,” says Jay Vincze, head of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s London. (more…)
Genieve Figgis, Our First Party (2014), All images via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed.
Following her American debut at Harper’s Books in East Hampton this past summer, Genieve Figgis moves to the Upper East Side for her first New York City show at Half Gallery. One of the recent rising stars of the art world, the Dublin native received major international attention with her unearthly depictions of aristocracy’s heydays, maneuvering between an impressionistic figurativeness and bold abstraction. In Good Morning, Midnight, the artist continues her ambitiously exhilarated portrayals of joyous escapism. (more…)
A Mondrian held in private hands for over 50 years will hit the auction block at Sotheby’s New York this week, estimated at about $30 million, and anticipated to potentially break the artist’s record at auction. “It’s from what is considered to be Mondrian’s best period, in the 20s,” says Helena Newman, co-head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s. “By which time he has developed this very iconic and unique style which is so beautifully epitomised in this work. (more…)
Laure Prouvost, via The Guardian
Tonight Laure Prouvost was awarded the Turner Prize of £25,000 ($33,850). Prouvost was nominated for her works, Wantee, commissioned with Grizedale Arts, which was shown as part of the Schwitters in Britain exhibition at Tate Britain, and Farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells, which was made during her residency in Italy as the recipient of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women and which was exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery. Born in Lille, France in 1978, Prouvost has lived in London since she began studying at Central St. Martins arts college. Prouvost is known for films which frequently employ deliberate language misuse, text and image juxtapositions, fast-paced cuts, montage, and which are situated within atmospheric installations. The 2013 Turner Prize exhibition runs until January 5th, 2014 at Ebrington in Derry~Londonderry. (more…)
Jean Dupuy, Performances/Bouffe Théâtre d’en face (1979) (detail), via Galerie Louevenbruck
Galerie Louevenbruck Paris is currently exhibiting Jean Dupuy: the collective years (1973-1983), a first time retrospective of the artist’s “collective” period during the late 20th century. This period of work was developed after Dupuy left Paris for New York in 1967. Having begun his art career as a painter, he infamously threw his old works into the Seine before heading off to America, where a year later his Cone Pyramid (Heart Beats Dust) sculpture became his introduction to the notions of the collective. Shortly after its creation the piece had already been exhibited at both the Museum of Modern Art and the Brookyln Museum, and its success launched the artist into his 40 year study of “techno-sensual” techniques and collective art practice.
Jean Dupuy, The Collective Years (Installation View), via Galerie Louevenbruck
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge (1892), courtesy The Frick Collection
The Frick Collection is currently displaying a series of nineteenth-century French drawings and prints by a variety of Realist, Impressionist, and Post-impressionist masters, made possible by the Florence Gould Foundation. Exploring the varying approaches of figuration, depiction and ornamentation throughout 19th century drawing and prints, the exhibition is on view through June 16th.
The Wall Street Journal has published a thorough profile on MoMA’s recently hired curator of photography, Quentin Bajac. Recruited last year, Bajac is the first non-American to be named to the post, and brings a diversified view into the art form that often incorporates fields like astronomy. “Photography has established a fruitful dialogue with other media,” he said. “With film, with architecture, with sculpture. What I’m really interested in is this dialogue with other techniques.” (more…)
François Pinault, the Christie’s owner and art collector was recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal, highlighting the executive’s passion for contemporary art, and the current show of work by Rudolf Stingel at Pinault’s recently purchased Venetian palace the Palazzo Grassi. “He is a sponge. He is willing to learn all the time,” says Elena Geuna, the former director of Sotheby’s Europe. (more…)
Sotheby’s is currently facing a lawsuit from a past customer, who discovered that a work he had purchased through the auction house was reportedly once owned by Herman Goering, the Nazi leader recognized as the founder of the Gestapo. The piece, an 18th century painting by Louis-Michel van Loo, was sold in 2004, but was unable to be resold when questions arose about how Goering acquired the piece. The plaintiff, Steven Brooks, claims that Sotheby’s sold the work fraudulently, knowing about its questionable origins, as well as knowing that the work would be difficult to resell. (more…)
Matisse: In Search of True Painting, (Installation View),via The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City opened the exhibition “Matisse: In Search of True Painting” on December 4th 2012. Dedicated to Henri Matisse’s painting process, and highlighting his tendency to “repeat compositions in order to compare effects,” the exhibition includes forty-nine works, emphasizing the artist’s lifelong work with pairs, trios, and series, and exploring his artistic exercise of variance to discover the true essence of an image.
